1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rice tub-shaped sushi ball-forming apparatus which is capable of automatically forming sushi balls each having a predetermined shape, size, and hardness before making e.g. hand-shaped sushi, and rice balls sideways surrounded in laver, called "Gunkan-maki".
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, sushi artisans make hand-shaped sushi called "Edo-style" by hand-shaping sushi rice into a bite-sized sushi ball, putting grated wasabi and a sliced fish or other dilicacies on a top of the sushi ball, and then hand-shaping them again using the palm of his hand and his fingers.
Making the hand-shaped sushi counting on the skill of the artisans as described above increases the producing cost.
Therefore, the recent shortage of the artisans and requirement of lowering the producing cost, etc. cause machines of automatically producing sushi balls, the so-called sushi robot, to be developed, which are now used in sushi shops or restaurants.
However, customers have a tendency of still desiring no mechanization, which is the main reason why the sushi robots are prevented from being further widespread.
The solution to this problem lies in producing a lot of sushi balls using a sushi robot located at a place where it cannot be seen by the customers, and then bringing the sushi balls in the sushi shops using stockers, etc. This requires, however, a lot of time until making of hand-shaped sushi after forming of sushi balls, which provides a problem of e.g. deteriorating of the quality.
Therefore, there is proposed a sushi robot which weighs out the required amount of sushi rice by a weighing out apparatus from a sushi rice container arranged below a top plate of a cabinet, placing the weighed out sushi rice on a lower mold on a turntable, compressing the sushi rice with not only the lower mold but also an upper mold to make a sushi ball having a predetermined shape and size, shift the sushi ball on a conveying means comprising a belt conveyer by a seizing apparatus and a moving apparatus, and then conveying the sushi ball to an opening portion disposed on the top plate by the conveying means.
According to thus constructed sushi robot, a sushi tub, opening at a bottom, is arranged on the opening portion of the top plate; therefore, even if an amateur, having no experience of making hand-shaped sushi, makes the hand-shaped sushi, the customers to be impressed as if the sushi artisan took out the sushi rice from the sushi tub.
However, the above-mentioned sushi robot is so constructed to carry out by stages weighing out of the sushi rice, forming of the sushi balls, and moving of the sushi balls, and convey the sushi balls formed at its lower portion to its upper portion specially by means of the belt conveyer, thereby making the construction complicated, and further increasing the size, which requires a large installation space. This makes it impossible to install the sushi robot in a narrow counter of e.g. sushi shops.
Moreover, when moving the sushi balls while seizing and lifting them by the moving means, and when conveying the sushi balls from the lower portion to the upper portion by the belt conveyer, the sushi balls are liable to lose their shape, which provides a problem of requiring to hand-shaping the sushi ball again to waste labor and time.